interchange with National Rail at all stations interchange with National Rail at all stations High Speed 2 was a planned new high-speed railway line connecting London with the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds directly on new high speed track.

Liverpool, along with London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, was envisaged to have a city centre HS2 station.

The scheme was cut down to only three provincial city centres served directly by HS2, two being on phase 2.

[5][6] In 2014 David Higgins, who was then chairman of High Speed Two (HS2) Limited, proposed an addition to phase two: a high-speed hub at Crewe to take advantage of, and have access to, the six classic lines radiating from the existing Crewe junction.

Many more regions and cities would have overall superior journey times being accessed with a combination of HS2 and classic lines.

The high-speed hub was to be sited to the south of the current Crewe station.

[19] It was envisaged both tunnels would be, as an 'absolute minimum', at least 7.25 metres in diameter to accommodate the high speed trains.

Both Manchester and Salford City Council recommended routing High Speed 2 to Manchester Piccadilly to maximise economic potential and connectivity rather than building a new station at a greater cost and which could be isolated from existing transport links.

[25] The Derbyshire and Nottingham Chamber supported high-speed rail going to the East Midlands but was concerned that a parkway station instead of centrally located city stations would result in no overall net benefit in journey times to existing services.